Shloka 24
कुन्ती द्वारा ब्राह्मण-सेवा
Kuntī’s Regulated Hospitality to a Brāhmaṇa Guest
अवमन्येह न: सर्वान् करोति कदनं महत् । मया त्वपह्ता भार्या सीता नामास्य जानकी,“हमलोगोंपर जो यह अत्यन्त दारुण एवं महान् भय उपस्थित हुआ है, इसका तुम्हें पता ही नहीं है। यह राम सेतुद्वारा समुद्रको लाँधघकर हमलोगोंकी अवहेलना करके वानरोंके साथ यहाँ आ पहुँचा है और राक्षसोंका महासंहार कर रहा है। मैंने इसकी पत्नी जनककुमारी सीताका अपहरण किया था
avamanyeha naḥ sarvān karoti kadanaṃ mahat | mayā tv apahṛtā bhāryā sītā nāmāsya jānakī ||
Mārkaṇḍeya said: “He is disregarding all of us here and is causing immense destruction. Indeed, it was I who abducted his wife—Jānakī, named Sītā.”
मार्कण्डेय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse underscores moral causality: contempt for dharma—here, the abduction of another’s wife—invites overwhelming retaliation and ruin. It frames devastation not as random fate but as the ethical consequence of a grave transgression.
In Mārkaṇḍeya’s narration of the Rāmāyaṇa episode within the Mahābhārata, the speaker reports that the avenger (Rāma, implied by context) is wreaking massive destruction, and the culprit admits responsibility: he abducted Sītā, Jānakī.